1. Field
The disclosed and claimed concept relates generally to electrical interruption apparatus and, more particularly, to an inter-pole drive bar that is usable with load interruption switchgear and that enables a plurality of poles to be together moved between a CLOSED position and an OPEN position.
2. Related Art
Numerous types of electrical interruption apparatus are generally known. Electrical interruption devices include circuit breakers, load interrupters, and other well known devices. As is generally understood, circuit breakers typically include a set of loaded springs and a trip mechanism, and in certain predefined circumstances the trip mechanism releases the mechanical potential stored in the loaded springs to cause a set of electrical contacts to be moved from a CLOSED position to an OPEN position. Certain types of load interruption switchgear include a pivotable blade for each pole that is manually or otherwise movable between a CLOSED position and an OPEN position. While such load interruption switchgear has been generally effective for its intended purposes, it has not been without limitation.
For example, load interruption switchgear having movable conductive blades typically must have some type of mechanism to move the blades between the CLOSED and OPEN positions, and such movement in the case of multiple-pole equipment is preferably done among all of the poles simultaneously. Previously known blade-type load interruption switchgear typically has thus had its multiple poles arranged side-by-side and has employed a rotatable crank with drive links extending between the crank and each conductive blade to move the conductive blades of the various poles between the CLOSED and OPEN positions. The side-by-side arrangement of the plurality of poles has caused such load interruption switchgear to be relatively wide and to thereby occupy a meaningful amount of the accessible floor space in a facility. It thus would be desirable to provide an improved solution.